quick audio picks: 123
Not sure exactly where these recent Barrington Levy 12-inch pressings have been coming from (you did pick up "Under Mi Sensi" right?), but all I have to say is: don't stop! This time around we get "Here I Come(1)" - aka "Broader...
expand review Than Broadway" - in a couple of unheard mixes. The main version is the one you've heard a million times (shoodly-addly-diddly-waddly vocals and all) while the Trouble Mixer(2) adds a rough synth into the mix. The flip has two dubs, the first being more of a straight instrumental(3) and the next a much spacier dub. -monk
quick audio picks: 1
From the dancehall days of the water pumpee and the cool and deadly comes Barrington's slow skank classic. No doubt a great song, once again produced by the 80s king a di dance, Henry "Junjo" Lawes. Same on both sides. -the mgmnt
quick audio picks: 1
This could be the most relentlessly cheerful song ever. I don't know what it is about reggae that lets a song featuring the nursery-rhyme chorus of "Everyday I love her just a little bit more/Your love is my love and my...
expand review love is your love" escape my finely honed, withering derision, but somehow it's impossible to hate on this. Of course, "She's Mine"is one of Barrington Levy's biggest and most, um, beloved hits from the glory days of late '80s dancehall, an undisputed part of any of his greatest hits collections and live shows to this day. This is the very cool and seldom seen picture sleeve 12-inch, complete with extended dub version. And yes, these are originals. -monk
quick audio picks: 1
An exceptionally smooth tune from the early period in Cocoa T's long career. Early 80s master Junjo Lawes is on production, popping out a great version of the Real Rock riddim here. Version on the B-side. -Chris Lemon-Red
quick audio picks: 1
The "other" Eek-A-Mouse hit ("Wa Do Dem" is his claim to fame), featuring the mouse at his adlib bong-gong-giddy best. For the unfamiliar, an Eek-A-Mouse record lands somewhere between singing, chatting, and a saturday morning cartoon- one of the most recognizable reggae...
expand review voice this side of Barrington Levy. When his delivery and melody is on, he kills with such authority that it makes his average stuff seem kinda lame (warbling monster mash hit tunes are hard to follow up). You don't have to worry about that tho, cause this is a certified weed anthem ("load up the van, all of the ganja it ram, put it on a plane, the weed gone a Spain, and the money just a flow like rain"). Unrelated version on the b-side. -the mgmnt
quick audio picks: 1
Another huge tune produced by Junjo Lawes and backed by the Roots Radics band, this is the Eek A Mouse claim to fame, with one of the weirdest sounding dj styles ever. There's always been a strange string of crazy sounding singers/djs...
expand review starting from way back: Barrington, Eek A Mouse, Tenor Saw, Buju, Bounty, Vegas, Sizzla etc. All these guys have the distinctive voices and combine with strange patterns to make some catchy unique shit. B-side is an unrelated instrumental. -the mgmnt
quick audio picks: 1
Frankie Paul is known as Jamaica's Stevie Wonder: a musical prodigy and hit maker from an early age and legally blind (but wears those bank window glasses anyway). Plays every instrument and loves to smoke his tushung peng. I always wondered what...
expand review it would be like to be blind and stoned...check the b-side for an excellent Scientist dub. -monk
quick audio picks: 1
One of Frankie's major hits, again for the undisputed crown king of the early 80s, Junjo Lawes. Word has it these days that Frankie gone chi chi, but his music stays classic. Version on the B-side. Jamaican pressing. -Chris Lemon-Red
quick audio picks: 1
One of the all-time greatest dancehall songs, Half Pint floats lovely over this George Phang production. He had a massive amount of hits from the mid eighties into the early nineties, ruling as one of the dance's most loved singers. This is...
expand review his first string shit though. -the mgmnt
quick audio picks: 1
One of the most upbeat tunes I know, as Pete says this could have just as easily been some 80's new wave club hit. Regardless it is strictly sweetness tonight as soon as this hits the turntable. Great George Phang production, loving...
expand review those extra instrumental touches. -the mgmnt
quick audio picks: 1
There's a million dancehall records about weed, and a lengthy list of great ones, but "Sensi Addict (1)" is up in the lambs bread hall of fame. The riddim is like a little plinking casio line with shitty digital drums- could easily...
expand review be trash bin material without Horace. But he drops a wicked clipped vocal in his falsetto style ("me no wan no white rum, me will tumble down") that turns the whole thing into a giant fun fest. Stop being a sad little man and pick this up. -the mgmnt
quick audio picks: 1
The source for Damian Marley's "Welcome To Jamrock" revealed! "World A Music(1)" is on the same rhythm and is just a sick track in its own right. People don't know about Ini Kamozi man... think just cause he had a crossover tune...
expand review that he wasn't ever the real deal? Then sink your soft teeth into this. And now imagine dropping the D Marley after that first verse when he goes "out in the street, they call it murder". Hammer time. Reasonably clean press with the vocal track "Call The Taxi" on the b-side. -the mgmnt
quick audio picks: 12
Another hip hop/ragga banger rescued from the Massive B vaults, this tough cut lays the beat from Brooklyn rudeboy classic "Broken English" (Smoothe the Hustla where you at?) over Kingston rudeboy lyrics from Jigsy King. B-side is the yard version, same...
expand review lyrics on a modified Diseases riddim. -monk
quick audio picks: 1
Don't get it twisted: this is the 1980 original that "No Ice Cream Sound" was based on, and is about ten times tougher than the 1992 update. Not that the soundboy killer Osbourne cut for Jammy's isn't, um, cool, but this "Junjo"...
expand review Lawes Channel One production is what set the whole ice cream thing off. You know the lyrics: "I don't want no ice cream love, that's too cold for me" – crucial. This repressing is super clean on thick vinyl with a great version from the Roots Radics band on the B-side, a true dub with lots of drop-outs and bits of the vocal. -monk
quick audio picks: 12
"Haul & Pull Up(1)," the hardest Junior Reid cut all-time? Gets my vote no question. I don't think I've ever heard a record that sounds like this one.... it could have easily been recorded straight off the mixing board at some sound...
expand review show in the early 80s (most likely Sugar Minott's Youthman Promotion since it's on his Black Roots label). Jr's vocals are echoed out to perfection and the riddim (Murderer/Hot Milk) is punched in and out with the same energy as a sound man trying to hype the crowd- not somebody sitting in a studio trying to make a hit record. Throw in the fact that he's singing about "haul and pull up" and basically, this is that raw shit. -Chris Lemon-Red
quick audio picks: 1
The veteran King Kong proving (again) that he's still in top form with this wicked ganja tune on Massive B's Mad Sick riddim. The Mad Sick is built around a late-80s-style bassline (a chopped version of the riddim from Red Fox's "Down...
expand review In Jamaica"), and King Kong matches the mood with his champion vocal style- sounding as good as if this was 87! King Kong was a contemporary of the great Tenor Saw, and has always rocked a similar cadence; here he takes the melody from Saw's "Who Is Gonna Help Me Praise Jah Jah" and cleverly flips the lyrics to "who is gonna help me legalize ganja." Just a big tune all around. Version on the b-side -the mgmnt
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